Walking Around Sungai Rengit...

Memories as a child

In my Form 1 Geography project, it was about to find out the origin of the name of the town you are staying. I remember i had a manuscript of 'Sejarah Pengerang' (The History of Pengerang) from my sister. I got my project done by using that manuscript. It said, the name 'Sungai Rengit' is coming from the river (Sungai) and a kind of tree which used to grow by the river, which were' rengit' trees. i did not know anyone who knew rengit tree, but there used to be mangroves by the river. Now, even the mangroves have disappeared, not to mention the rengit trees, if it ever exist. As for the chinese name si(4) wan(1) dao(3)四湾岛 (literally means the fourth cove island), if you counted from Tanjung Pengelih, Sungai Rengit is believed to be the forth cove by the sea. It is called an island because long time ago, there is no road access to here from Kota Tinggi. People had to take a boat to go to the bigger town or city. My sister was borned in 1976 and my mom had to take a boat to go the the hospital in Johor Bahru to give birth. Due to this, people mistaken or considered this 'forth cove' as an island.



This is one of the fishermen jetty, it is at the river mouth of Sungai Rengit, beside of the bridge.
When i was in primary school, for unknown reason, mantis shrimps were something that nobody wanted to buy. So i came to the jetty in the evening time when the fishermen came back from their catch, and went back home with a big bag of shrimps for free.



Near by the bridge is a 'Y' junction and this piece of land is at that junction.
When i were young, we called here san(1) jiao(3) po(1) 三角坡 [the triangle slope]. There were a few swings, see-saw and other things for children to play. Eventually, they built a garage to park the fire engines and now, it is just merely for decoration.



My grandma told me that, those tower liked structure on the sea are oil rigs. i doubted it, as i don't think we produce oil here. But later on, my friend who studied petro chemical told me that, they are oil rigs! I am still not sure what are these rigs doing here, as nobody i asked seems like can tell me for sure. Some of the rigs are so near that you are able to swim towards it! [such as the nearest one to Kampung Jawa -- tou(2) wan(1)头湾].



We called here da(4) cao(3) chang(3)[big field]. It is shared by both Yok Poon and Sungai Rengit Primary School. Any special event of the town, this is the place for it. In the evening, there are always people playing football.
When i was in the primary school, this is the field where we were trained by Sir Ganeshen (the only Indian teacher in the chinese school) for run. One round of the field is 400 meter.



This is considered as the main street of Sungai Rengit. There are many more tall buildings (more than one storey) than it used to be. There are a few new shops and restaurants, including local product shops (the only real local products are the pastry and may be the seafood at the restaurants -- even in the restaurant, nowadays, they important many seafood from else where), a bakery or patteseries, a steak restaurant (!) and shop selling bubble tea and waffles.
Most of these shops or restaurants are opened or invested by the local younger generations who earned a bit of the money else where and have confidence over the potential the town.



Medan Ikan Bakar or the grilled fish square is the only hawker centre in the town. On the 4th and 18th day of the month, there is a night market just beside of the square. The night market is the best place to try different kind of local snacks, such as apom-apom, bamboo rice, bird nest water (the owner sold this for at least 20 years already) ... There are also clothes, electric appliances, plants ...



Medan Ikan Bakar have good views. It is by the sea and you can feel the breeze and even see the sunset. Nowadays, you can see many big ships on the sea. I read it some where saying that, this part of water is the international grey zone between Singapore and Malaysia. These ships are parking here so that they do not have to pay the anchor fees, while waiting to get into the habour in Singapore.